Windows 10 Update 1803 No More Files Issue

If your Medilink Workstations get “No More Files” or "Invalid File" errors in Medilink, your Medilink Server may have recently been updated to Windows 10 Update 1803.

This error means that the Medilink Workstations are failing to open the database tables over the network. This is caused by a change in the way Windows 10 is sharing files over the network. Unfortunately that change is outside of our control.

This in turn may cause Medilink to work erratically. You may be able to click through the errors in some cases, although it's best to try and rectify the problem.

Note that only Medilink LAN Workstations get the error, even though it's the Server that has the actual issue on it. So you can keep using Medilink on your Server computer without any issue.

You can also update Windows on your Workstations, and we encourage you to continue to do so (apologies if this was not clear enough in our previous communications).

Sites with a Medilink Server running Windows Vista/7/8 or Windows Server 2008/2008R2/2012/2012R2/2016 are not affected. Terminal Server and Standalone sites are not affected at all either.

The following is an guide of what to do if you encounter this issue and/or want to plan to perform the Windows 10 Update:

Discuss with/forward this to your general IT provider. Unfortunately, most of the items in this article are about things that ultimately Medilink cannot support. So it is important that you have a more general IT support provider review/advise/assist with these matters.

Make sure all of your computers are updated to the very latest update of Windows including all patches (most especially your Windows 10 PCs). For instance, currently there are a few additional patches after the main 1803 Update (KB4103721 & KB4100403). To check on Windows 10, click Start -> Settings (the cog icon) -> Update & Security -> Check for Updates. You can also tell if you click OS Build Info (linked in that same Update screen) that it says Windows 10 Version 1803.

Turn off Windows 10 Activity History on the server computer and workstations. Start -> Settings (the cog icon) -> Privacy -> Activity History. Un-check Let Windows collect my activities from this PC, and also Clear the Activity History at the bottom of that page.

The Medilink share on the Server should not be cached. Right click the Medilink folder on your Server (usually C:\medilink32bnt) and go to Properties, then the Sharing tab, then Advanced Sharing, then click Caching. Make sure No files or programs from the shared folder are available offline is ticked.

Check your anti-virus settings and ensure that your Medilink server path and each local install is excluded from real-time scanning. For example, exclude: \\MY_SERVER\MEDILINK and C:\medilink32bnt. This is important because any stress on the network share can exacerbate the problem (so you could try it with the anti-virus completely off temporarily and see if that helps too).

Ensure all PCs are connecting via 1Gbps LAN. If there is a mix of 100Mbps and 1Gbps then you will have performance issues which can exacerbate this problem.

Ensure all PCs are on the same Workgroup or Domain.

One site suggested that having all workstations switched to IPv4 helped and/or configuring your LAN PCs to use static IP addresses rather than DHCP. This is a contentious fix amongst techs that we have talked to, but you may elect to try.

Install SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support on all of your PCs (it may be uninstalled on Windows 10 post update). On the server only disable SMB 2 via REGEDIT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters and add a DWORD called SMB2 and set the value to 0. You will need to reboot after this.

We have further anecdotal advice that the problem will get better over time. We realise that this is not very reassuring, but the problem has seemingly disappeared over the course of a few days on some sites that have been impacted (it may still happen once at startup of the day, but then disappear). So one methodology may be to perform updates late on Friday and leave the PCs on over the weekend.

Finally, if all else fails you should roll back the Windows 10 Update 1803 on the Server only (Workstations should be left up-to-date). Start -> Settings (the cog icon) -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Go back to the previous version of Windows 10. If you do this you should probably also pause your updates via: Start -> Settings (the cog icon) -> Update & Security -> Windows Update -> Advanced Options and then tick on Pause Updates.

Where possible, please email support@medilink.com.au any questions you have about this issue in advance. This issue has seriously increased our support staff workload, and we may not be able to get back to you on the spot if you call.